Cathedral 9 Slot by ELK Studios

Coffins That Keep Falling

Cathedral 9 plays on a 6x5 grid with a 2-row Feature Reel sitting on top. Wins require 8 or more matching symbols anywhere on the grid - no paylines, no clusters, just raw symbol count. Dropping symbols (cascades) clear wins and refill from the Feature Reel, which feeds special symbols like wilds, collectors, and explosions into the main grid.

The coffin mechanic runs the show. Mystery Coffins drop through the grid one row at a time. When any coffin reaches the bottom, all active coffins reveal the same payout symbol (or wild). Wins get paid, coffins close, nudge down one more position, and reveal again with a new symbol type. This loop repeats until no wins appear. One coffin sitting near the top of the grid can produce four or five reveals on its way down.

Super Coffins and the Global Multiplier

Super Mystery Coffins work identically but carry a multiplier value that feeds into a global multiplier when they reach the bottom. Those values range from 2x to 1000x per coffin. The global multiplier persists between bonus drops, so a couple of well-placed super coffins early in the bonus can inflate every subsequent win.

This is how Cathedral 9 reaches 25,000x - ELK's highest cap in their recent releases. A stacked global multiplier from super coffins, combined with scatter pays counting 15+ symbols across the grid, produces the kind of math other ELK games top out at 10,000x for.

The Number 9

Nine payout symbol types. The Super Bonus triggers when you win on all nine during a bonus session. That awards extra free drops, each starting with pre-loaded Super Mystery Coffins. It's a rare trigger by design - you need nine different symbols to all appear in winning quantities across multiple drops.

The base game has its own persistent feature: Holy Collect. Energy accumulates as holy blockers drop from the Feature Reel, and the state carries over between rounds at the same bet level. When it triggers, 3-6 mystery coffins appear on the grid. Think of it as a slow-building surprise that fires at random intervals regardless of what else is happening.

Collector, Explosion, and Big Symbols

Two more features activate when cascades stall. The Collector picks one symbol type and pulls every instance of it into one position - useful for pushing toward that 8-symbol threshold. The Explosion clears its column and adjacent columns, making room for new drops from the Feature Reel.

Big Symbols (2x2, 3x3, or 4x4) count as their equivalent in 1x1 symbols. A 4x4 block counts as 16 matching symbols for scatter pay purposes. Combined with mystery coffin reveals, a single big symbol reveal near the bottom of a coffin chain can swing a round from nothing to a full payout tier.

Pricing the Bonus

The X-iter menu reflects the game's depth. Standard spins at 1x, bonus hunts at 2.5x and 10x, a 50x Coffin Drop that pre-loads mystery coffins, 100x for direct bonus entry, and 500x for the Super Bonus with guaranteed super coffins per drop. At 94% RTP across all options, the 500x buy is expensive but it's the only way to start with the global multiplier engine running from drop one.